Management Problem Solving

Despite the dizzying amount of data at our disposal today - and an increasing reliance on analytics to make the majority of our decisions - many of our most critical choices still come down to human judgment. This fact is fundamental to organizations whose leaders must often make crucial decisions: to do this they need the best available insights. This book introduces a model that taps the collective judgment of an organization so that the right decisions are made, and the entire organization profits.

Former consultant Dr. Paul Friga distills the guiding principles first presented in the best-selling The McKinsey Way and the tested-in-the-trenches methodologies outlined in The McKinsey Mind, and combines them with many of the principles and procedures implemented by the military and other organizations. The result is nothing less than the business equivalent of a Special Forces Field Manual.

As organizations strive to do more with less, many are turning to Lean methodology, which is based on the same techniques that propelled the legendary turnaround of Japan's industrial sector after World War II. Few leaders, however, understand that the real secret behind Lean is a comprehensive approach to management that differs significantly from what is taught in business school. The Lean CEO reveals the true power of Lean through in-depth interviews with CEOs who have gone beyond tool adoption and established Lean as a corporate-wide management system.

What You Aren't Seeing uniquely combines the uplifting story of Herbert Greenberg, the founder of a global management consulting firm, with insights into the psychology of leaders and practical guidance on uncovering and developing true leadership potential in yourself and others. This life-changing guide shows you how to question your habits, preconceptions, and strategies for connecting with people in order to identify your personal leadership strengths and optimize them for personal and career growth.

Based on breakthrough research, field testing, and proven best-practices, the thought-leading vision described by Gary Harpst in Six Disciplines Execution Revolution sets a new course for how small and midsized businesses can finally confront the never-ending challenge of executing strategy.

Management teams and boards are facing disruption on all sides, from morphing customer preferences to the COVID pandemic to climate change. At the same time they are floundering in strategy confusion with too many concepts and not enough clarity. In this book, strategy expert and regular Harvard Business Review author Graham Kenny releases managers and directors from their strategy haze. His simple and effective framework allows managers to navigate the current maze of ideas and approaches and maximize their competitive advantage.

In this innovative business how-to, leadership expert Marcia Daszko draws on her expertise to guide leaders at any level through a three-step process to radically improve their businesses: first, recognize and stop outmoded ways of thinking that fail to move the business forward (like focusing on the bottom line, conducting performance appraisals, and searching for best practices); second, start taking steps to introduce new, innovative ways of thinking and contrarian practices; and finally, transform your company into a more resilient, adaptive, and united organization.

The most powerful weapon in business today is the alliance between the mathematical smarts of machines and the imaginative human intellect of great leaders. Together they make the mathematical corporation, the business model of the future. While smart machines are weapon number one for organizations, leaders are still the drivers of breakthroughs. Only they can ask crucial questions to capitalize on business opportunities newly discovered in oceans of data. This dynamic combination will make possible the fulfillment of missions that once seemed out of reach, even impossible to attain.

Companies stumble when they imagine that innovation is mostly about ideas. The reality is that ideas are only beginnings. Indeed, even a company with the world’s best idea still faces a devilish challenge: it must build the business of tomorrow without endangering the business of today. Beyond the Idea is an essential book for any business that recognizes that innovation always has been, and always will be, the key to long term growth and vitality.

In The High-Velocity Edge, the reissued edition of five-time Shingo Prize winner Steven J. Spear's critically acclaimed book Chasing the Rabbit, Spear describes what sets market-dominating companies apart and provides a detailed framework you can leverage to surge to the lead in your own industry. Spear examines the internal operations of dominant organizations across a wide spectrum of industries, from technology to design and from manufacturing to health care.

In this groundbreaking book, T.J. Waters has turned his experience collecting and analyzing competitive intelligence for the CIA into effective strategies for businesses wanting to stay on the leading edge of their industries. The book describes a practical process from planning (identifying competitive threats and determining the resources needed to counter them) through implementation (creating an organizational strategy) to execution (collecting key information and turning it into bottom-line results).

Managing a business is never easy, but you can turn the daunting job into something more bearable. Find out how with the help of this audiobook. This audiobook touches on many topics such as correcting mistakes, eliminating waste, generating ideas, and boosting employee morale. Sure, you can find plenty of free advice on how to carry out those tasks. However, it’s rare to encounter an approach that’s applicable to all of them. One of the best things about this audiobook is how it highlights teamwork.

As the former chief scientist of Express Scripts, a Fortune 25 health-care company dedicated to making the use of prescription medications safer and more affordable, Bob Nease is an expert on applying behavioral sciences to health care. Now, he applies his knowledge to the wider world, providing important practical solutions marketers, human resources professionals, teachers, and even parents can use to improve the behavior of others around them and get the positive results they want.

To edge out the competition in today's disruptive environment, you need to ensure that your company is agile - that it can respond to change instantly and effectively. Because fast and furious change is the only thing you can count on in business today. Network expert Michael Arena helped enable GM's legendary turnaround. In this book, he explains how you can transform your own company through the concept of adaptive space.

Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, the school teacher next door who amassed a million-dollar fortune.... Did these people succeed because they were more motivated or because they were more disciplined? The answer to both questions is yes - but not in the ways you might think. Anyone can achieve extraordinary things. The secret is setting goals that test the very limits of your abilities. In Hard Goals, Mark Murphy, the acclaimed author of Hundred Percenters, explains the science behind getting from where you are to where you want to be in your career, business, and life.

How to articulate and assess what success looks like. The Social Profit Handbook offers those who lead, govern, and support mission-driven organizations and businesses new ways to assess their impact in order to improve future work rather than merely judge past performance. Drawing upon decades of leadership in schools and the foundation and nonprofit worlds, author David Grant offers strategies that help organizations take assessment back into their own hands, and improve their work as a result.

Creating solutions to solve problems can often prove very difficult to accomplish, even for seasoned solution designers. Complex organizational problems have several stakeholders, endless variables, and a myriad of possible solutions. It's hard enough to figure out where to start, and even harder to realize what the perfect, mutually-beneficial solution is.

LEGO is one of the world's best-loved and most familiar brands, adored by generations of children. What is less well known, though, is how close this iconic company came to total collapse in 2003. Brick by Brick is the compelling story of a Danish family-owned company that enjoyed decades of success before its inability to keep in step with a rapidly changing market brought it crashing to earth. It's also the story of an extraordinary recovery.

Beyond Integrity offers a balanced approach to a number of concrete ethical issues. Readings from a wide range of sources present competing perspectives on each issue, and real-life case studies further help the listener grapple with ethical dilemmas. The authors want to help the listener arrive at his or her own conclusions. To this end, they provide a decision-making model. They also present, in addition to several views on each topic, a distinctly Christian perspective on each issue under discussion.

Strategic leadership is essential to business success: Strong leaders are those who successfully navigate a great shift: from tactical doer to strategic leader. Regardless of your industry, line of business, or sector, your organization desperately needs strategic leaders. A strategic leader is tuned in to the needs of the business, understands how his or her actions impact corporate objectives, and uses data to make smart decisions. Whether you're leading a department team or running your own company, a strategic leader clearly propels business performance.